A Thrilling Adventure.

Manawatu Herald, 24 September 1904, Page 3

A Thrilling Adventure.

It is difficult to imagine a more terrif/ing position than for a man to have his foot wedged in a railway line and to be compelled to watch a train approach him. Yet this has been the experience at Landore Viaduct, near Swansea, of a man named Jeffreys, a carriage examiner employed by the Great Western Railway, Jeffreys was walking along the railway track towards his home about 10 o’clock at night, when his boot heel became wedged in one of the wooden check rails. He knew that a train was due to pass, and did his utmost to free himself, hut without success, Just then he saw the lights of the incoming train speeding towards him. He shouted, thinking that either the enginedriver or the signalman in the box some distance off would hear him, but there was not the slightest sign of their having done so. In a few seconds the train was on him. Jeffreys threw his body backward as far as possible, in order to save himself from being struck by the engine. The locomotive passed without touching him, but one of the carriages struck him on the leg, rendering him unconscious. By this time the enginedriver had observed his predicament, and pulled up his train and effected Jeffrey’s release, when it was found necessary to amputate the crushed limb.